1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to the manufacturing of structures and, in particular, to the manufacturing of aircraft structures. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for maintaining a selected configuration of a structure during the manufacturing of a completed aircraft structure using a drivable support system.
2. Background
Manufacturing aircraft structures may be a complex and time-consuming process. For example, the manufacturing of a wing, fuselage, or some other type of aircraft structure may require the assembly of hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of parts. During the assembly of an aircraft structure, one or more components used to form the aircraft structure may need to be held in certain positions relative to each other such that operations may be performed on these components.
As one example, the front spar assembly and rear spar assembly for a wing may need to be held in certain positions relative to each other, while various operations are performed to assemble the wing. These operations may be performed simultaneously, at different times, or both. The operations performed may include, for example, without limitation, any combination of drilling, countersinking, fastening, coupling, sealing, coating, inspecting, painting, or other suitable types of operations.
Some currently available methods for assembling an aircraft structure use rigid supports to hold components in certain positions during the assembly process. In some cases, these rigid supports, which are sometimes referred to as tools, may be fastened to the factory floor to form an assembly line for manufacturing the aircraft structure. However, these supports may limit future expansion of the assembly line because they are typically permanently fastened to the factory floor.
Further, these supports may be unable to accommodate the manufacturing of aircraft structures of different shapes and sizes. Once installed, the rigid supports may not allow the flexibility needed to account for aircraft design changes, changes in manufacturing locations, changes in aircraft production rate, or other types of changes. Consequently, using these types of rigid supports for the assembly of aircraft structures may cause the assembly process to be more time-consuming and expensive than desired. Additionally, the rigid supports may require more maintenance than desired over time. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.